Two constitutions

The guys at No Left Turns have steered us to two columns that are worthy of your attention.
First, James Lileks has a helpful column on the proposed European Union Constitution. (As Rocket Man has pointed out previously, the New York Times credited Jacques Chirac with playing a role in the creation of the EU Constitution comparable to Thomas Jefferson’s role in shaping the American Constitution. The Times subsequently acknowledged, sort of, that Jefferson did not attend the Constitutional Convention or play any role in producing the Constitution.)
Lileks performs the valuable service of explaining a few of the more opaque provisions of the proposed EU Constitution, such as Article 23: “‘Equality between men and women must be ensured in all areas, including employment, work, and pay.’ ALL areas. Could they be any more vague? No, but they can be remarkably specific. The article continues: ‘The principle of equality shall not prevent the maintenance or adoption of measures providing for specific advantages in favour of the under-represented sex.’ So equality must be ensured, except when it’s not. In that tidy little notion rests the lifetime employment of 10,000 lawyers.”
Second, Mark Steyn pays tribute to the constitution of Strom Thurmond. His column is a unique eulogy of the longest serving senator in American history.